Navy mulls extending NMCI contract, increasing contract ceiling

(Correction: An earlier version of the article misstated the amount by which the Navy previously increased the NMCI CoSC contract ceiling.)

The Department of the Navy has announced it may spend up to $1.2 billion more for support of its Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI).

In a Feb. 20 FedBizOpps posting, the Navy issued a sole-source justification, detailing a notice of intent to increase the price of Hewlett-Packard’s continuity-of-service contract (CoSC).

If exercised, this would mark the second time the Navy has increased the contract ceiling. Last September, DoN upped the contract ceiling by $1.5 billion.

The notice also allows the Navy to extend the CoSC services from April 2014 through September 2014 to ensure the department can complete the transition to its Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN). However, that contract option would only be exercised if the NGEN transition is further delayed.

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With the latest notice of a possible increase in the contract ceiling, the total cost for the CoSC could rise to $6.1 billion. The Navy’s notice said it would reach the current contract ceiling of $4.9 billion by September 2013.

Ed Austin, a spokesman for the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems said in a statement the issuing of notice does not necessarily mean the department will extend the contract.

“The DON is keeping all of its options open by considering the possibility of extending the contract …It is a prudent step that allows the DON to manage potential changes associated with the NGEN acquisition and transition,” he said.

Austin said the current stopgap funding measure and the possibility of sequestration have not yet affected NMCI CoSC work. “However, it is unclear how they might impact the NMCI CoSC in the future,” he added.

Francis Rose is the host of In Depth, which airs weekdays from 4-7 p.m. on 1500 AM in the Washington, DC metro area and online everywhere. Francis has covered all three branches of the federal government as a broadcast journalist since 1998. He joined Federal News Radio in 2006, and launched In Depth in 2008 as a daily show focused on connecting federal executives to the information they need to do their jobs better.